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Archive for February, 2013

Man tattoos his name across his lover’s face

A tattoo artist has inked his name across his lover’s face in elaborate Gothic script just hours after they met for the first time.

Ruslan Toumaniantz, the tattooist, met Lesya in an online chat room in January this year. According to reports, the couple fell “head over heels in love”, and decided to meet up in Moscow.

It was after this encounter that Lesya agreed to let Ruslan tattoo his first name on her face. The tattoo covers almost the entire area between her jaw and temples.

It is accompanied by another, which reads “all for love” in English, above her eyebrow.

The couple became engaged on January 20, and Lesya is already using Ruslan’s last name, the Huffington Post reported.

A friend of the pair said: “Their plans for a life together include her learning to tattoo while she also gets the full-body ink that she’s always dreamed of and of course a family.”

He added: “I know that there are people who are terrified that Lesya has made a rash decision that she’ll regret horribly, but sometimes the best decisions are the ones you make in an instant with your heart rather than the ones long-debated in your mind.”

Lesya’s Facebook friends have supported her makeover, with one writing: "Sooo beautiful. Even the style of the name fits your face well."

"You must be so happy that you can wear that tattoo. Enjoy it. It looks great," wrote Ralf Bieler.

Mr Toumaniantz has precedence in making headlines with his work. The tattoo artist gained international notoriety in 2009 after agreeing to tattoo 56 stars across an 18-year-old Belgian girl’s face.

The teenager initially claimed she had only asked for three stars, and that Mr Toumaniantz had added the rest whilst she was asleep.

She threatened to sue, before later admitting that she had lied about the events in order to avoid her father’s anger.

She is Grantham’s most famous daughter, but when a statue of Baroness Thatcher was offered to the local museum, it was considered by some to be a dubious honour.

Not everyone in her home town is sure they want to honour Britain’s first female prime minister, however, and Grantham Museum is yet to welcome the statue with open arms.

Jayne Robb, the manager of the volunteer-run museum, said: "It does need to go somewhere, but how the town responds to the life of Margaret Thatcher has to be a town decision.

"It is exceedingly heavy at two tonnes in weight and eight feet tall."

One Labour councillor went further, suggesting that displaying a monument to Lady Thatcher in a prominent place could actually be "asking for trouble" and invite further attacks.

Paul Kelleher, of Isleworth, west London, was found guilty of criminal damage after he attacked the statue with a cricket bat and decapitated it with a metal bar.

He claimed the attack was a protest against the ills of the world’s political system and was jailed for three months.

The restored statue was later put behind a glass case at a cost of £3,000 but was later put in storage at the House of Commons.

Labour councillor Charmaine Morgan said some of the former Tory premier’s policies remained controversial.

"Placing it anywhere in a prominent, public place in Grantham it could be open to a similar event occurring," Ms Morgan said.

"I think if it is to go into a prominent place it is asking for trouble."

Despite calls from successive mayors to erect a statue in honour of Baroness Thatcher – including one site on a town centre roundabout – her legacy seems to be so divisive that Grantham has never put up a permanent memorial to her.

The white marble statue was unveiled by the former prime minister in 2002, but attacked with a metal pole at Guildhall Art Gallery by a theatre producer later that year.

The volunteer museum, which already features a Spitting Image puppet of Lady Thatcher and one of her trademark blue suit, said a decision had not yet been made about the offer.

Mrs Robb added: "The white marble poses problems. If we put it into a public place, we’d be painting it every day.”

Its white surfaces, she suggested, could prove to be an open invitation to vandals.

Grantham has no tourist attractions dedicated solely to Lady Thatcher, but that does not stop visitors from around the world coming to see where she grew up.

The grocer’s daughter, who went on to be prime minister from 1979 until

1990, was born in Grantham and went to Kesteven and Grantham Girls’ School.

She was the longest serving prime minister for more than 150 years.

At the former grocery shop and post office where Margaret Hilda Roberts grew up, there is nothing more than a small plaque to mark its connection with the future Baroness Thatcher.

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A third of drivers still in the dark over new EU gender laws

With just few days to go until the new EU gender directive comes into force, uSwitch research has found that a third of drivers remain unaware of its potential impact.

According to the AA, a female driver aged between 17 and 22 currently pays a typical premium of £2,057 compared with more than £3,000 for men in the same age bracket.

Many within the insurance industry predict that prices for young women will rise by an average of 25%, adding around £531 per policy.

Cheaper cover for men, price rises for women

Michael Ossei, personal finance expert at uSwitch, says: “The new EU gender ruling will affect anyone who drives a car. As it stands, too many consumers are in the dark about how they will be affected.

“From this Friday, insurers will not be able to factor in gender when setting car insurance premiums. The new rules could provide an early Christmas present for men, who are likely to benefit from lower premiums.

“However, women will be in for a rougher ride, with premiums set to rise by up to 25%. Hardest hit will be women aged between 17 and 25 who could see premiums almost double.

Women drivers to cut back on spending

Ossei continues: “The new rules could force almost a quarter of women drivers off the road – 13% have said that they will not be able to afford motor insurance and 11% may have to sell their cars. Over a third of female drivers would have to cut their living expenses to cope with higher premiums and 5% may have to borrow money.

“Very few women are taking action before the new rules are introduced – the majority are seeing their premiums out and risking the rise in the new year. This is a sensible route to take, given the hefty exit penalties charged by most insurers.

“With this in mind, it’s more important than ever at renewal time to do some research to find the best deal possible. With over 100 providers on the market, there can be a huge difference between the cheapest and the most expensive quote.

“A little bit of research will go a long way towards limiting the financial impact of this judgement and not letting cost force drivers off the road.”

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Thief demands cookies for kids as ransom

A thief who stole an historic golden cookie sculpture from a biscuit firm’s HQ has an unusual demand for its safe return.

A German resident who goes by the alias Krümel Monster (Cookie Monster) wants all the children in a local hospital to receive a cookie. The missing statue has stood guard over the Hannover base of biscuit maker Bahlsen for the past century. A person claiming to be the thief sent a ransom note to local media.

"I have the biscuit!" the letter mailed to Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung read. "You want it and therefore you want, on one day in February, to give biscuits to all the children in Bult hospital.

"But those with milk chocolate, not those with dark chocolate and not those without chocolate. And a golden biscuit for the child cancer ward."

Bahlsen has offered a €1,000 (£860) reward for information leading to the thief’s arrest, with the Krümel Monster demanding it be donated to a local animal shelter.

A spokesperson for the hospital said that Bahlsen has "already done a lot" for the facility and "doesn’t need to be coerced in this way".

Commissioners for the research, Sweatband.com, also found that most of those with moobs do consider it to affect their confidence and would consider surgery to correct their problem.

Maz Darvish, CEO of Sweatband.com, said: "Although the majority of men with ‘moobs’ admit they’re a result of a lack of exercise and a poor diet, to find that so many would still prefer to have surgery to correct the issue is worrying.

"Cosmetic operations like ‘moob surgery’ and liposuction are potentially very short-term solutions to obesity, especially if the patient continues to eat unhealthily and exercise rarely."

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Pilot locked out of cockpit mid-flight after co-pilot fell asleep

Low-cost Dutch airline Transavia has opened a probe after one of its pilots was locked out of the cockpit mid-flight after his co-pilot fell asleep, Dutch authorities said Wednesday.

The incident, which occurred on a Boeing 737 flight to Crete in Greece in September, was made public by the Dutch safety board (OVV) in a quarterly report published on its website. The body called it a "serious" incident.

"After two and a half hours in the air the captain of the Dutch-registered plane left the cockpit to go to the toilet," the OVV said.

"A little later he wanted to return to the cockpit. When he used the intercom to call the first officer to open the door he got no reaction.

"When he managed to get into the cockpit, he found the first officer asleep," the OVV said, adding that Transavia was investigating the incident.

The OVV said it would decide what action to take after receiving Transavia’s report.

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France to turn off office and shop lights at night

French shops and office buildings will have to turn off their lights at night to save energy and reduce light pollution, the French environment ministry said on Wednesday.

From July 1, all non-residential buildings will have to switch off interior lights one hour after the last worker leaves the premises. All exterior and shop window lighting will have to be turned off by 1 am.

Local authorities will be able to allow exceptions for Christmas lighting and other local events.

The new law will save about two terawatt/hours of electricity a year – the equivalent of the annual consumption of 750,000 households, the ministry said.

Environment Minister Delphine Batho said it would also make France a pioneer in Europe in preventing light pollution, which disrupts ecosystems and people’s sleep patterns.

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Google Declares War on Microsoft

The search giant is heading for a war with Microsoft, claiming that it wants to get 90% of users who don’t require the most advanced features of Office. According to Amit Singh, a Google vice-president and head of its Enterprise unit, Google only generates around $1 billion from 5 businesses which sell products and services to the enterprise which is only 4% of its business.

In 2012, the search giant ramped up its enterprise business and started its “infrastructure-as-a-service” cloud, Compute Engine. It competes head on with Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure. Google also launched Drive, which allows Google App users store any type of document in the cloud. The company began charging for Google Apps for organizations with 10 employees or less.

This gave the search giant credibility with enterprises and Google won deals with such companies as Roche, BBVA, Dillards, Kohl’s and Office Depot. In other words, 2012 was the year Google broke the barrier and got large-scale customer adoption.

At the moment , Google wants total domination of the Office software market. The company realizes the gaps between its features and Microsoft’s and it is enhancing them on a weekly basis. As you can understand, Microsoft isn’t the kind of outfit that would give up without a fight, and Office is still one of Microsoft’s main products. The experts predict that things will get messy on the cloud space this year.